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Monday, December 8, 2008

Solving the BCS problem

The mythical college football championship game is set. And lots of people are not happy.
Me? I don't have a dog in the hunt. Or Dawg, to be specific.
Still, there are some unhappy campers. And I'm in that group. Despite my not having a team of interest in the mix ... or close to the mix ... I'm in the unhappy group because ... well, let's face it: I have strong opinions.
But I do more than just whine about something I don't like; I have a solution.
Check that.
I have THE solution: A 16-team playoff that uses the BCS for seeding.
Automatic Bids
There are 11 conferences. The 11 conference champions get an automatic spot. The remaining 5 spots ... call them "wild card" spots ... would be taken up by the top teams in the BCS standings that don't get an automatic berth.
Here are the 11 conference champions, listed alphabetically by conference:

Conference

Champion

Atlantic Coat

Virginia Tech

Big East

Cincinnati

Big Ten

Penn State

Big 12

Oklahoma

Conference USA

East Carolina

Mid-America

Buffalo

Mountain West

Utah

Pacific 10

Southern California

Southeastern

Florida

Sun Belt

Troy

Western Athletic

Boise State

Wild Card Teams
Here are the top five teams (according to the BCS) that did not win their conference.

Rank

Team

3.

Texas

4.

Alabama

7.

Texas Tech

10.

Ohio State

11.

Texas Christian

There are two ways of doing the seeding.
One is using the BCS to rank them, plain and simple.
But that's too plain and simple for me. I actually like the way the NFL does it. In the NFL, the division champs get the top seeds, and the wild cards get the leftover slots, regardless of record.
For instance, in 2007, Tampa Bay was the #4 seed in the NFC, winning the South with a 9-7 record, while the Giants were the #5 seed, despite having 10-6 record. Likewise, Pittsburgh took the AFC North with a 10-6 record, and were seeded 4th, while Jacksonville, sporting a better record (11-5), was 5th seed, since they didn't win their division.
Seeding
Using that as a model, here's the 2008 NCAA Division I-A (using the older name) playoff seeding:

Seed

Team

Conference

Record

BCS

1.

Oklahoma

Big 12

12-1

1

2.

Florida

Southeast

12-1

2

3.

Southern California

Pacific 10

11-1

5

4.

Utah

Mountain West

12-0

6

5.

Penn State

Big Ten

11-1

8

6.

Boise State

Western Athletic

12-0

9

7.

Cincinnati

Big East

11-2

12

8.

Virginia Tech

Atlantic Coast

9-4

19

9.

East Carolina

Conference USA

9-4

none

10.

Troy

Sun Belt

8-4

none

11.

Buffalo

Mid-America

8-5

none

12.

Texas

Wild card

11-1

3

13.

Alabama

Wild card

12-1

4

14.

Texas Tech

Wild card

11-1

7

15.

Ohio State

Wild card

10-2

10

16.

Texas Christian

Wild card

10-2

11

Matchups
This will set up some interesting matchups:

(16) Texas Christian at (1) Oklahoma

(15) Ohio State at (2) Florida

(14) Texas Tech at (3) Southern California

(13) Alabama at (4) Utah

(12) Texas at (5) Penn State

(11) Buffalo at (6) Boise State

(10) Troy at (7) Cincinnati

(9) East Carolina at (8) Virginia Tech

The 8 winners would play the following week, with the top 4 remaining seeds hosting the bottom 4 remaining seeds. The 8 first-round losers and the 4 second-round losers would get bowl invitations. And pretty good bowl invitations, in all likelihood.
The final four would play as part of the January 1st bowl games. The final two would play a week later for the real ... not mythical ... championship.

That should be as close as you can get as a player, yet those guys will get a ring, a PS3, a bunch of shoes, and warm-ups, backpacks, all kinds of swag. At least Bammer doesn't have to do too much to make theirs worth it.

Do you have deja vu already about that UGA/Hawaii game with the Bammer/Ute game?

I like it. Would let my Pirates play with the big dogs. Plus, probably somewhere warm, instead of at the Liberty Bowl. Again. Though, better then the Motor City bowl. I mean, Detroit? A bowl game in Detroit? Yeah, that's where I want to travel to.